Ambient conditions produce significant impact on operability and reliability of a turbomachine. Certain ambient conditions may result in operational issues for the turbomachine such as, for example, ice formation on inlet guide vanes, lean blow out, high dynamics, emissions, degradation, and so forth. These issues may make turbomachine operations unreliable, cause trips, and even cause physical damage to the turbomachine. For example, in a cold weather ice can develop on the inlet guide vanes. The ice can break off, travel downstream into the compressor, and cause significant damage. Another example is related to a sudden change in ambient temperature that can occur during seasonal temperature changes. When an ambient temperature suddenly decreases, the turbomachine can experience operability issues because the turbomachine is tuned to operate in a warmer environment and is not capable of operating in the colder environment.
Conventionally, operational issues caused by ambient conditions are addressed as they arise. Thus, to prevent ice damage, real-time temperature data may be analyzed and, if ice formation conditions exist, air traveling through the compressor can be directed to heat the inlet of the compressor. However, excessive application of inlet bleed heat (IBH) can lead to a reduction in performance of the turbomachine. Moreover, in some cases, ice formation can still occur with the IBH.
Robust designs that are capable of handling varying weather conditions have been used to avoid operational issues caused by ambient conditions. However, these designs may not be optimized for performance and costs due to their robustness.